SEASON of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; Conspiring with him how to load and bless With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run; To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees, &nbs

MY heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk, Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk: ‘Tis not through envy of thy happy lot, &n

In the spring of 1818 a nightingale had built her nest near my house. Keats felt a tranquil and continual joy in her song; and one morning he took his chair from the breakfast-table to the grass-plot under the plum-tree, where he sat for two or three hours. When he came into the house

October 27th, 1818 My dear Woodhouse,Your Letter gave me a great satisfaction; more on account of its friendliness, than any relish of that matter in it which is accounted so acceptable in the ‘genus irritabile’. The best answer I can give you is in a clerk-like manner to

It had started to rain. Grey lonely rain that stirred up the earth below the garden and coated Mercy’s old boots. Each step muttered something about the past; promises, feuds, diluted loves. Mercy had never fallen in love. She had never found a glance returned. She walked slowly

The quality of mercy is not strain’d,It droppeth as the gentle rain from heavenUpon the place beneath: it is twice blest;It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:‘Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomesThe throned monarch better than his crown;His sceptre shows the

Read through the extract from Act3,Sc4 l.1-48. Work in small groups of 4 with one person being the spokesperson and note-taker. Imagine that you are using this section of the play in order to explore the ways in which people might experience their emotional lives and communicate with

The Romantic1 poet John Keats (1795-1821) coined the phrase ‘Negative Capability’ in a letter written to his brothers George and Thomas on the 21 December, 1817. In this letter he defined his new concept of writing: I mean Negative Capability, that is when man is ca

1) ‘Because the Lear stories concentrate upon the masculine predicament of Kingship and Fatherhood, and the dangers in relinquishing both forms of authority, it is dramatically necessary that the Queen be already dead.’ (Joyce Carol Oates) How far would you agree wi

I leant upon a coppice gate, When Frost was spectre-gray, And Winter’s dregs made desolate The weakening eye of day. The tangled vine-stems scored the sky Like strings of broken lyres, And all mankind that haunted nigh Had sought their household fires. The land’s sharp fea

1) Examine again the eye gouging scene in Act 3. What does this scene contribute to the drama of the play and is it necessary? What is created aesthetically? Consider also the escalation and momentum of the scene. How inevitable is the violence in terms of the play overall? What is th

Mercy watched the sea from her room. Brine and seagulls. Her hands moved over the damp coldness of the ancient sill, drawing her name. She was aware of the secret weight of time.Mercy Jones. 12 years old, wearing an old tartan wool dress waiting for he

Home is so sad. It stays as it was left, Shaped to the comfort of the last to go As if to win them back. Instead, bereft Of anyone to please, it withers so, Having no heart to put aside the theft And turn again to what it started as, A joyous shot at how things ought to be, Long falle

Sharing thoughts and words is as good as fanning a great warming blaze. Wonderful. Looking back, thinking about ‘my’ blond haired boy in long shorts with seemingly permanently tanned skin brings fleeting thoughts of the Koala’s eucalyptus emblazoned outbac

King Lear Two: âEdgar I nothing am.â (Act 2, sc3) 1) In groups of four/five discuss your reaction to Learâs first two Acts. Explore your chosen quotations in terms of their impact. Select ONE example and a spokesperson who will then p

http://youtube.com/watch?v=KE2orthS3TQ&feature=related Makes me think of the Italian Job and all those mini coopers racing through Turin with the ever laconic Michael Caine directing his ‘mob’ – presided over(at a presidential distance) by the Queen o